aka_anita's Xanga

Friday, June 13, 2008

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 18:14:34 GMT

I have to post this or they'll kick me off Xanga. I'm writing my dissertation right now and I want it to just be over.

An Update of Sorts

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 14:17:02 GMT

I'm doing some work and watching Love Actually. Matt doesn't like it so I watch it when he's not home.

We're coming up rapidly to my show... I haven't posted about that. Okay. This summer I asked the writer of Journalist and Hope to write a one-woman show for me to perform for my third year. This year I have three major tasks that I set for myself plus a final assessment portfolio. They are the Major Production Task (MPT), the Negotiated Task (NT) and the Independent Study Task (IST). The MPT is exactly as it sounds -- work on a major production. The NT is a work experience thing -- this is what I'm doing with the Centre for Excellence in Training for Theatre (CETT). And the IST is really a very short dissertation. 5,000 words max. What you're meant to prove in 5,000 words I have no idea but I have come up with the world's most narrow topic (with the help of my mad French advisor) -- "The Persective of the Producer With the Knowledge of the Performer Versus the Perspective of the Producer Without the Knowledge of the Performer."

So anyway I got Sarah to write me this play and I got together a large part of the team that did Journalist and added in a few people, got rid of a few -- new sound designer, new director, new scenographer. I'm really excited about my team, I think it's a really solid group of people. And we're beginning the rehearsal period this week following the last two weeks of workshops. We preview twice in the first week of december, then it's Christmas, then January pickups and a February run. I'm in talks with Theatre 503, where I worked on Future Me, and also the Camden People's Theatre, where Matt performed A Thousand Words. I should confirm with one or the other by the end of the week.

In other good news, due to the CETT residency I get an office in school -- well, I get to share one with the company that's doing a residency, but i get my own desk. I even might get an office number! How crazy is that? I'm very excited.

So I have to be off, errands to run and that, and then rehearsal to go to!

Cheers m'dears.

And she's back...

Sun, 09 Sep 2007 15:26:47 GMT

I can't believe how long it's been since I posted! Christ am I ever rubbish.

Okay. So. Let's see.

The Accidental Festival -- really good, we put on 20 shows, 2 roundtable discussions, 2 sets of play readings, 6 play readings of translated works from Eastern Europe, 1 photo exhibition, and 1 installation in the car park. I produced and performed in a piece of new writing called Journalist and Hope by Sarah O'Hanlon. The team was people I know from across the courses and a damn fine team it was, and we got a girl from the BRIT School for Performing Arts to play the other character. It was a part of the triple bill on Friday 18 May, the day that the head of undergraduate studies, the head of the Centre for Excellence in Training for Theatre (CETT), and the acrting principal were there. We were on with a company from the MA programme and a professional company. All of the important people said that ours was the best of the three shows. The acting principal even sent an email to the group, congratulating us on the festival and mentioning Journalist and Hope specifically as the piece she most enjoyed.

I then took a job stage managing a piece called Future Me about paedophilia. It was also a piece of new writing which was very well received. We got great reviews from the Guardian and Time Out gave us critic's choice. I also learned how to operate sound and lights simultaneously -- I did this by sprouting extra arms. I had to hand the show over to another Stage Manager in the last week because I was off again -- this time to Buxton.

I went to Buxton to work at Underground Venues again (I think I mentioned this last year). This year I was in as the Front of House manager. It was a bit of a challenging year. Over the time I was there I worked 12 hour days 7 days a week with only one morning and 4 blocks of 3 hours to put on Journalist and Hope. I worked a total of 234 hours, averaging almost 80 hours a week. For FREE. This is not an experience that I will be repeating any time soon, particularly as one of the guys that ran the venue insisted on having a drama with his ex and current (actually now also ex) girlfriends that interfered with the work and annoyed the shit out of everyone concerned. The only saving graces were Miss Charlie Heyday, a saint among technical managers, Ben, from the year below me on my course, and Doug, my lighting op. And Lucy and the former work experience girls. Actually there were a lot of good people there but the people running the show were useless.

Journalist and Hope was an interesting experience, being performed on the 8th, 13th, 20th and 21st of July. My lighting designer, Jack (bless!) was the most wonderful person, putting together cue sheets and plots and gelling requirements in time for the show. My sound designer, Tom... well, we didn't have the right stuff on the first performance. Thankfully by the next one the following week, it was there, and I was sitting behind the box office, scribbling awat at a prompt copy for the ops mere hours before we went up. The rest of the run was relatively uneventful, and we got some great reviews. The space was at the top of a hill (Buxton's in the Peak District), and one reviewer said "well acted, well directed, and well worth the short walk up the hill."

As a matter of fact, the only huge difference was that I was no longer able to smoke onstage. You see, the smoking ban came into effect on the 1st of July this year and, as the Journalist in the play is a chainsmoking alcoholic, and as the first line in the text is "Damn, damn, damn have you got a cigarette?" it was a bit of a panner in the works not to be able to smoke. But you see, there is a loophole for when smoking is integral to the artistic merit of a piece. So I though, great, that's fine. WRONG. The space we were using was in a school, therefore not technically a bona fide theatre and therefore owned by Derbyshire County Council who said "smoking in a school? Absolutely not." Screwed. So I had to pantomime chainsmoking. PANTOMIME. But apparently it wan't that big of a deal.

I was unable to go to the festival awards ceremony, but I wish I could have gone because Journalist and Hope won Best New Writing of the Buxton Festival Fringe and I got nominated for Best Actor (they don't differentiate between actor/actress, it's all very PC). So that was good.

During all this time I was staying with friends or accomodation that was provided for me because my lease had gone up on the 15th of June and Matt put all of my stuff in storage in East Finchley. See, we were meant to get a flat together but the one we put a deposit on was let privately by the landlord without telling the estate agents. Grr. So I was off again, this time to stay with Matt at the Cambridge Shakespeare Festival, where last year he played Orlando in It Like You As and Tybalt/Paris in Romeo and Juliet. This year he played Hortensio in Taming of the Shrew and Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream. This will also be the last year that Matt does long days for very little pay. It went really well, especially Puck, as he's a magician, he put in little magical things here and there which really added to the whole fairy bit. And he got two appearances on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire to promote the show and do a bit of magic, so that was good.

I stayed in Cambridge for a couple of weeks and then came back down to London to househunt. Now, househunting in London is much more of a trick than in the MN burbs, as all flats are owned privately and then let through agencies or by their landlords through a great little publication called Loot. Matt had been working the agencies so I'd been doing the Loot, which is an exhaustive process as you have to call as many different people as there are flats and about half of them are either miniscule or shite. Same goes for agents but at least they always have pictures.

I was staying with a friend of mine called Kelly from Future Me and I got the Loot the morning after I arrived. She lives in Kentish Town and apparently newsagents in Kentish Town hate the Loot, so I took a nice little walk over the canal into Camden Town. Then I realised it was a Tuesday. Loots only come out on Sunday, Wednesday and Friday so I'd bought an old Loot. What the hell, I thought. Maybe I'll get lucky.

I called about 12 places that day and saw 3 flats. One of the private landlords had said I could call him later that evening. The first flat I saw was nowhere near big enough for my piano. The second was nice but right next to a mainline rail station (i.e. trains all day except between 1am and 5am). The third was a hole. So I called the landlord who'd said to call later, and I met him at East Finchley Tube at 8pm. And at about 8:10 I found my flat.

It's a 2 bed for £220 a week, a bit steep for us but unbelievably cheap for what it is. And so my piano and Matt's study have a bedroom to themselves (where I am typing this right now) and we have the big one, and a big living room/dining room and a kitchen with many more work surface than you usually see in England. And it's in a purpose-built block rather than a Victorian conversion so we can't hear everything that out neighbors do which is a bonus. So we moved in (well, I moved in early) on the 15th and it's been lovely. We still need a few things but we're skint at the moment.

Then I had a meeting last Monday with CETT (remeber from the first paragraph?) and I'm working with them on a project this year and... NEXT year as well! I don't have to leave hallelujah! So I'm here at least until the end of 2009. Probably longer, because I might to an MPhil (Masters of Philosophy, the English precursor to the PhD) for FREE with Central next year while working for CETT.

So I've typed a lot now and I want to stop. Sigh. I think that's all the good stuff anyway.

Cheers m'dears!

Sunday, October 29, 2006

Sun, 29 Oct 2006 23:09:35 GMT

I'm watching Six Feet Under with my housemate and her boyfriend. It's weird, it's about undertakers and stuff.

So anyway, things on thia side of the Atantic haven't slowed down much. There's lots to do for school, and then there's this baby grand piano that's chillin' in my living room next to me. Ever heard of the website www.gumtree.com? It's great, you can get stuff for free. We'd been looking for a piano and this lovely guy called Colin (who is the music director at E15) had an ad up for a 5' Klingmann baby grand. And, well, I went and saw it, rang some lovely Polish piano movers and wham bam thank you ma'am I own a baby grand. It's being tuned on Thursday morning. You know, that whole pianos go out of tune when they're moved thing. And wowee, is that true.

Anyway, I'm taking classes from a writer called Rebecca Lenkiewicz, whose plays include The Night Season and Shoreditch Madonna and so on -- she works from the National Theatre. The lectures have been brilliant, and I keep wanting to go to a cafe and drink lots of coffee and write loads but then I have to go to the world's most uninspiring lecture EVER -- performance and critical studies. The name of the lecturer is Grizzled Ferret, for our purposes. She's like a character out of the comedy sketch show Little Britain. It's depressing. There's only a couple more lectures from her this term anyway. I dunno, she means well and all, she just has no ability to lecture.

Wow, this show is written like shit.

I found a salsa partner as well, totally camp boy called Ollie. He's lovely. He's flaming, which makes him an excellent partner for salsa in particular, as he knows what his hips are and how to use them. I've gotta look up Bar Salsa in Soho and see when we can get a lesson and a dance night in. I miss dance a lot. We don't have any movement class this term.

I have also been appointed head of Admin for our festival project in June. We have a whole year to plan it and then at the end of the year we put on a performance festival. It's what I performed Synchronicity in last year.

I have to go do some work. Jeez.

I totally forgot about the time change as well. Matt called me from the tube and said, I know why all the clocks at yours disagreed with my computer. I said really, why's that? I felt very clever.

Anyway, must go and do something. Kisses!

Monday, October 16, 2006

Mon, 16 Oct 2006 14:06:35 GMT

And the theatre gods spake unto the people, saying 'Thou shalt have so many theatrically related things to do that thou shalt neglect thy friends and thy Xanga site into Oblivion.' And it was so.

I have, since I got back to London:

- Moved

- Performed in a friend's show

- Spent a week in Paris

- Done a photography project about character development through imagery

- Written a ten minute play about a woman who drowned in the wreck of the Stella

- Stage managed a show that may be going on tour

- Set up my wireless internet and home phone at the new house

- Found out that Synchronicity (the performance I did at the Institute for Contemporary Arts last June) might be going to a scenography festival in Prague courtesy of Central (this is a HUGE deal as loads of people who matter in the theatre world will be there and if we do well we will be known)

- Not slept a whole lot

So I will write a full update ASAP but forgive me as I must edit my play.

Kisses! (PS hi Eryn have Kyle rub the belly for me please and send me photos!)

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Tue, 01 Aug 2006 13:56:15 GMT

Yes, it's true, all you Minnesota readers. I am in your state.

A lot has happened since my last post, as you might guess since it's dated 4 July. I went to Buxton, first of all, and I did press, front of house and performed with my company for the fringe festival there. Have I mentioned about the company? My friend Sarah and I decided to start Split Soul Dance Theatre. We performed a set of four dances at Buxon. I had a solo to "Me and a Gun" by Tori Amos, Sarah and her twin Amy did a duet to "Falling" by Naomi Wright (friend of hers, really gorgeous voice), Sarah did an improvised dance as I sang "Into the West" by Annie Lennox, and we adapted/rechoreographed "Change" by the Deftones for the three of us, which was originally a me and Heather duet. We got nominated for Best Dance of the Fringe. It was good.

FOH was good as well -- the boys running the venue (my dear friend Yaz and my newfound partener in crime Tom) might have broken even. Lianne and I headed up the operation (she was the actual Box Office Manager) and had a lovely time meeting all the characters out at the fringe. Especially Stoon -- what a strange person. He did, however, keep us relatively entertained with the gossip from other venues and a multitude of strange jokes. At least, that's what I'm assuming he was trtying for. And then there are John and Barbara, the chair of the fringe and his wife. They are delightful people and were at the venue nearly as much as Lianne and I were. I think they must have seen about thirty shows at our venue alone.

Then there was Siyaya. This was a Zimbabweian acapella choir and HOLY were they ever good. They performed in the Barrel Room (the space next to the box office) so we all got to know their stuff and danced around like mentals when they sang. "When you talk to me like that, oh, I'm feeling so happy..." That was the last song the sang in the show and it was awesome -- talking about a parent/child sort of relationship. They won Best Musical Event of the Fringe and they deserved it. We sold out half their run and nearly sold out the other half. They're coming back next year too, and I told one of the girls "I don't know how I'm going to get by without this every couple of days..." Incidentally, the name of their show was Nqi Ngqo, which I had no idea how to pronounce, so I asked. Apparently, the q's denote toungue clicks. I can sort of say it right. They thought it was damn funny when I tried at least.

I stayed at a Manse (gramatically correct word for the dwelling of a Methodist minister if it is provided by the church) with Colin, Caroline and Charlie. Colin is the minister, Caroline is his wife, and their daughter (about my age) is Charlie. She's just finished a degree in anthropology. We brought her to the kick off party and had a blast. Caroline is lovely as well, she let me stay an extra day (which I spent lounging in the garden and reading). She had her foot in a cast because she had some sort of surgery on it, and kept saying that she was sorry she couldn't really do anything and asking why we gave her comps to everything. First of all, she did loads, and second, she put up four of the people working for us for free for nearly three weeks. Of course we gave her comps. Lots of, as well. She fed us, too, told us to help ourselves to anything and pressed up with bits of cake and cups of tea. I can't wait to go back. I've alredy told Tom I call dibs on that house. And it has a Steinway grand in it! Wuah! And a french horn, which I have to say I'm a bit rubbish at now. They put up with me trying, though.

Then I got back to London and stayed with Eleonore for a couple days. Eleonore ran Synchronicity (as in, came up with the idea, designed, directed and produced the show) and I might have said this before, but she is, in fact, Yoko Ono. Except she's French. We cavorted around (ate at a gastropub, had some drinks and watched March of the Penguins, went swimming in Hampstead Heath, had a picnick, etc.) and had some time off from everything. It was lovely.

So then I packed up -- had tapas at All Bar One in Leicester Square with my Rosie -- and here I am. Rosie's going to Greece and says I can come too (if I can get the money together). She's going to the Isle of Lesvos, and I'd go and stay with her for a week in September. Must work. But not too hard.

On a slightly less exciting note, I'm having surgery for my Endometriosis on the 10th. I'll only be laid up for a couple days, but if people want to come watch movies and listen to my brilliance while on heavy-duty painkillers, that would be excellent. It's going to be laparoscopic, though, so I mught have to remove my belly button piercings! Oh, horror!

Anyway, the mobile number is the same as always. Give us a call. Oh, and Dad and I are going to see Peter Pan at Eagan at some point this week... so I might see you...

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Tue, 04 Jul 2006 14:28:11 GMT

We had the ball on Sunday! I'm going to see if I can put one of the pics in as a profile pic, if not, you'll find a few in my pictures with the Unit 5 stuff. I looked weird in Unit 5 -- but hey, that's theatre.

Anyway, this ball was at this place called Syon House down near Richmond. It was gorgeous, but they set up this marquee on the grounds and bearly let us go anywhere. Despite that, I had a blast -- the weather was gorgeous, everyone looked stunning, and almost everyone that I would have liked to be there was. Not Anna, though, she's in Sweden. It's odd, she paid, like £25 for her flight and £35 for a taxi to the airport. Is that backwards or what?

In other news, there may be a voyage to Greece in the cards in September. Rose is going to visit there and said I could come. I've done almost no work in Greek all term -- too busy. Oh, well, that's how it goes. I've got the summer to work on it. And then when I get back I can practice it on Maria.

The weather here is nice, although it doesn't seem to be ablse to make up its mind today. It was sunny and like, 33C (80 something F) this noon, by two it was overcast and thundering, and now it looks vaguely like it's trying to clear up. Here's the thing, though. The English whinge endlessly about rain and so on, but it never properly rains in London. It just spits on you, like, "phltttt..." and that's it. Shite, if you ask me. I need some proper lightening, thunder and torrential downpour, here. I was telling Yaz about that windstorm we had when I was in high school and all those trees landed in the EHS parking lot. That was one hell of a storm. Dr. Boschee said a tree fell on his house. I am not surprised. Ooh, look, it's sunny again.

Anyway, I've been on the computer far too long. I'm going to Buxton tomorrow and must pack and stuff. And I'm starved. I need some food. So that's all for now, folks!

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Tue, 27 Jun 2006 19:51:06 GMT

I am nearly finished with the last unit file of my first year. I have one criteria to go -- which I'll finish tonight and then I will be done with everything. I don;t really feel like I've been here a year, but I feel like I've been in London forever. It's weird how these things work.

As I don't have much creativity left, I'll just type up a bit from my journal about the get-out (known to you Americans as "strike"). You need to know that the stage manager's name is Matt, that he's socially inept, doesn't quite know how to take me, was that last person to leave the space with me, and that I got back from the space after get out at ten to nine at night. Oh. And I walked backwards for most of the show. Long story. Anyway...

"I had a twinge of sadness as I walked back through the space for the last time. I actually walked through the hall backwards for a couple of steps. But that was it. I usually find get out so depressing, but I was ready to leave. I picked up the stuff I was bringing back to school (paint supplies, fire exit signs, first aid kit) and off we went. Matt said he was going to bring all the things he was carrying home (bucket of tea cups, tool kit, steelies, hoodie) so he could shower before the bar.

'Shower?' I said. 'Nah. They can smell me, I could care less.'

As per usual when I make gross comments like this, he looked at me with confusion and laughed uncomfortably.

'D'ya mind if we sit on the steps so I can have a fag?' I asked. I hadn't sat down for a cigarette all day -- about ten hours.

'Sure,' he said.

I took my fags, now hopelessly crushed, out of my back pocket. I smoked at warp speed and crushed the butt out under my unbelievably dusty work shoes. I'm unbelievably dusty everywhere, I thought. Oh, well.

'Right,' I said. 'Let's go.'

And that was my goodbye to Shoreditch Town Hall."

So there you have it. I'm going to upload a few pics, please peruse at your leisure...

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Tue, 30 May 2006 18:54:53 GMT

HEE HEE! I am playing the narrator for our piece about Orpheus! I'm very excited because my singing will be coached by a woman from the English National Opera! And it's my birthday!

At last!

Wed, 24 May 2006 12:05:20 GMT

I'm aliiiiive!

It's been busy, getting geared up for my Buxton performances and press job, rehearsing for the ICA project (including dying my pointe shoes red) and of course, my normal work this term on my course. I've seen three operas (Monteverdi's Orfeo, Puccini's Madame Butterfly and Janacek's The Makropulos Case), been to the Globe to see a show (Shakepeare's Coriolanus)... shit. I have to go to a meeting. I'll be right back.

Later that night at ten minutes to seven...

Okay, I have returned. As for the school project, it was a very productive afternoon. We started pooling practical ideas (at long last). There has been, up until now, a very ethereal, nondescript discussion of themes and stuff, but not really practical imagery to really work on and see if it looks good. So now, five weeks in or however long it's been, we are at last producing some theatre. I have a secret desire to play Persephone, goddess of the underworld. This could give me another opportunity to use a costume piece from the ICA project...

You see, I am now the proud owner of some red pointe shoes, as I mensioned earlier. I would really like to use them again... and again... and again... but for the moment they belong to my costume for Synchronicity at the ICA. Synchronicity is a hypothetical psychological phenomenon (which I place no stock in at all). The idea is that you have a personal unconscious and are connected to everything on earth through the collective unconscious. The upshot of this Jungian idea is that, if you are in tune with your psyche or something, you will experience meaningful coincidences (think The Celestine Prophecy -- nice story, but yeah, right). The classic example is, if you're in a bookshop, and want a particular book desperately, it will suddenly fall off the shelf and whack you on the head. To me, this is a load of bollocks. It's like the film Pi (can't figure out the symbol thing, sorry) -- if you look for a pattern for long enough you'll find one, when in fact, it is not really there. Me and theology have the same issue with eachother. However, the others who are performing in this all seem to buy this idea hook, line and sinker, so we have this lovely contrast. And because I tend not to be in to the hippie-like self discovery process complete with seance and epiphany for performance, I make a convenient candidate to embody Jung's "persona," one of the archytypes he invented which is our day to day self that we and others see. This, to me, is great, because I get to have all sorts of cool costume bits, and red pointe shoes, and get freedom of movement about the space. And I get to bring my props around with me in a cloth and play with them and leave them lying about. Oh, and have we all seen Ever After? I get to have a lovely (hopefully sparkly) mask painted onto my face. Pictures will follow, the performance is June 7. I'm really psyched about all this.

Buxton is just gearing up, but I get to go harass the papers soon as I have a public press release. Sweet sweet! I'll get all dressed up in my suit (last worn at my interview for Central, before that, at State Speech 2002) and look just peachy. And they will all be impressed and they'll bring their friends and yes. It shall be good.

My piece for the festival is coming together... slowly but surely. I'm over half done choreographing "The Dreaming Tree" by Dave Matthews Band and Sarah's finished hers. I think I'll be doing Change again, and Gen's putting a little something together. Deadlines are running up...

Oh, and I'm heading up the ASM (assistant stage management) team for the ENO project. It should be interesting, the health and safety for the production amangers is going to be mental. We've got this disused basement space in Shoreditch Town Hall, which is excellent, but some of it is too dangerous to use. All the better to stimulate the brain, my dear... I really like the site, though, it's amazing. When I get some better photos of it I'll post them.

On a final note, happy late b-day to Dad, I still haven't rung Mom back, sorry this took so long and... I'll be 22 on Tuesday, I expect lots of international phone calls! Ye-ah! You could also ring on Saturday... we're going out! Whee! Byeeeee(read in similar style to Briget Jones' mum)!